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Accelerator-based light sources get a boost

The structure of matter can be explored using the light emitted by particle accelerators. An experiment demonstrates how the properties of two such light sources — synchrotrons and free-electron lasers — can be combined.
  1. Alexander Brynes

    1. Alexander Brynes is at the Accelerator Science and Technology Centre, Science and Technology Facilities Council Daresbury Laboratory, Warrington WA4 4AD, UK.

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For decades, particle accelerators have been used across a wide range of fields, enabling the study of matter in ever-increasing detail. Charged particles emit light when they are accelerated, and accelerators that exploit this phenomenon are among the brightest artificial sources of light available, allowing scientists to probe the properties of matter over unprecedentedly short scales of length and time. Writing in Nature, Deng et al.1 report a proof-of-principle experiment on an accelerator that could extend the capabilities of these machines even further, potentially yielding applications in a next-generation chip-etching technology called extreme-ultraviolet lithography2 and an advanced imaging method known as angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy3.

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Nature 590, 556-557 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-00431-2

References

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